The Nanny State Presents New Salt Guidelines

The nanny health czars in the federal government have presented new salt guidelines for the American public. The new recommendations will “help” Americans cut the salt in their diets even though a new study shows that a low-salt diet is bad for your heart.

The guidelines set two- and 10-year goals and officials stress that many companies have already met or were working toward the two-year goals.

The new guidelines will cut more than 1,000 mg of sodium a day from the American diet, assuming people heed the new “rules.”

“A lot of it comes in your prepared and processed foods,” Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. “So most folks don’t actually know that you are getting it. Whether it is your bread, your salad dressing or when you are out a restaurant you are getting quite a bit then.”

Food is placed in 150 categories with new sodium guidelines for each category such as bacon, fries and pasta. “For instance, breakfast bakery products would have to reduce sodium by 65 percent over 10 years and frozen soups by 42 percent over the same time period.”

“In terms what we are doing is creating a situation where the consumer is in control,” Burwell explained. “If that consumer wants to add more sodium they are going to be able to do it. What the consumer can’t do now is take it out of the product and have real knowledge about it.”

It sounds like the consumer is going to be confused, not in control.

You can thank the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) for the new salt guidelines. This lefty group sued the federal government when the government failed to respond to a petition asking for more sodium regulation.

“Americans need to reduce their sodium intake to reduce their risk of heart attack or stroke,” said CSPI president Michael F. Jacobson. “If companies achieved the FDA’s proposed targets, it would have a huge benefit for the public’s health. If companies don’t achieve these voluntary targets, it would be clear that mandatory limits will be necessary to reach safe sodium levels.”

In other words, you will be forced to be “healthy.”

The Salt Institute is not happy about the new guidelines. The Institute wrote a letter in April asking HHS and the Agriculture Department to stop moving forward with the new regulations.

“The federal government pushing for reformulation of almost every food product made in the U.S. is unprecedented in its audacity. Every citizen will feel the effect of this overreach,” the group’s president, Lori Roman, wrote.

But Secretary Burwell knows better. “We know that there is a relationship between sodium consumption, high blood pressure and therefore those diseases (heart disease and stroke),” she said. “And so we are hopeful is that by having a gradual decline in the amount of sodium in america’s diets that we will be healthier and it will be less expensive.”